Batting

GORHAM, Maine—UMass Dartmouth scored runs in five of the first six innings and cracked out 22 total hits to hand UMass Boston a 21-5 season-ending loss in the Little East Conference Tournament at the USM Baseball Field.

With the victory, UMass Dartmouth advances to the Little East Championship Play-in Game, where they will take on second-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University at 10:30 A.M.

The contest marked the second consecutive game that stretched over two days, with the umpires calling the game due to darkness in the top of the eight inning, with UMass Dartmouth leading 20-5.

Five Corsairs batters finished with three hits or more led by Ryan Medeiros who ended the contest 4-for-7 with three runs and three RBI.

Junior second baseman Jose Pena (Boston, Mass.) led the Beacons with two hits and two RBI in four trips to the plate.

Sophomore first baseman Jason Cholish (Exton, Pa.) added two RBI as well, while Jamill Moquette (Boston, Mass.) picked up two hits, a run and an RBI. Bryan Failla (Torrington, Conn.) was the only other UMB player to end the contest with multiple hits, finishing the day 2-for-3 with a run scored.

UMass Boston used eight different pitchers over nine innings, with all but two of the pitchers giving up multiple runs. As a staff, the Beacons allowed 22 hits and 10 walks over nine innings, but were only charged with nine earned runs, thanks to a season-high seven errors.

Junior Ryan Augustine (Burlington, Conn.) and freshman Nick Radcliffe (Randolph, Mass.) combined for two of the Beacons three scoreless innings on the day.

After falling behind 3-0 in the top of the first, UMass Boston responded with two runs of their own in the bottom of the inning. The Beacons loaded the bases with one out, and after a fielder's choice, Cholish sent a two-out single up the middle, to plate Pena and Consiglio.

The Beacons took their only lead of the game in the bottom of the second, when Nick Brothers (Fort Myers, Fla.) walked and Faila followed with a bunt single. After a wild pitch and a strikeout, Pena laced a single to left field to plate both runners and put UMB ahead 4-3.

UMass Dartmouth grabbed the lead back in the fourth behind two hits, a walk and a hit by pitch to take a 6-4 lead.

Moquette cut the deficit to 6-5 in the bottom of the inning, when he blasted his team-leading third home run of the season to left-center to lead off the inning.

That's when the wheels came off for UMB. The Corsairs scored three runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth to push their advantage to 11-5.

After Augustine shut the Corsairs down in the seventh, the fifth-seeded Corsairs put the game out of hand in the eighth, behind a 10-run inning. UMass Dartmouth sent 14 batters to the plate and turned seven hits and four errors into a 21-5 lead. The inning lasted over 12 hours, thanks to the umpires calling the game due to darkness with two down in the inning.

The Beacons would go down quietly in the eighth and ninth innings, with Patrick Murphy (Stamford, Conn.) picking up the Beacons lone hit, a single to right field in the eighth, on Saturday.